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That was an excellent one.

So much average

Absolutely Fantastic

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

A shocker with Barbara Payton, Chaney, Burr, Conway, Cavanagh, Strode (I hope he wasn't playing in drag the witch …); Curt Siodmak had the destiny of the 2nd brother who directs, somewhat like Wilder's brother, which in his situation seems unfair, it's almost never mentioned that he has made movies, like this one or the kindred TV series. I liked that Barbara has been given the right to a loud scream.Curt Siodmak's directing is light and subtle, unassuming and intelligent, like in the later TV series.2nd, the storyline resembles very much that of the director's TV series, '13 Demon Street'. It's almost like that series' pilot. The idea is the same.3rd, Burr surprised me again with his modern appearance and also style, he reminds a bit of Sutherland (or even M. Sheen, but not necessarily), more of an early '70s look.4th, Chaney does a very smooth and likable role here, as the indigenous commissioner. He's a bit nonchalant and 5th, although Curt Siodmak stated his dissatisfaction with Chaney being cast as the monster written by him, nevertheless he directed Chaney, and not only in this feverish shocker, but also in the TV series.6th, Cavanagh, who plays the older husband, resembled the father in law of Doug from 'King of Queens', and it was good he has been wasted, expended soon.7th, you will see the names of Broder and Leven, plus H. Cohen, on the credits, which are associated with a lousy jungle comedy disgracing Lugosi's late career (in fact, it was from the same epoch). So they produced both one of the worst, and one of the best, jungle movies.

Great title, eh? Kind of conjures up rampaging Gorrilas protecting blonde dames from nasty explorers, thinly veiled bestiality, and a great jungle adventure for all, eh? Eh? Well, prepare to be disappointed.Perry Mason plays a guy called Bonny Chevez, manager of a warehouse at a plantation in some jungle, and Bonny's a bit of a fanny rat. He's already dumped the servant girl after sweet talking her into the sack, and now he's set his sights on seemingly brain dead and despondent plantation owner wife Dinah. Now, Dinah's much older husband isn't daft. He's got an old lady (who's a witch and mother of the servant girl) keeping an eye on things, and once he gets wind of Bonny putting the moves on his wife, he fires him during dinner.However, Bonny's done enough ground work to woo Dinah, so she's all prepared to run off with him. That night, Bonny gets a hold of the plantation owner and manages to get him killed by snake bite (He punches the guy in the stomach and the guy just lies there until the snake bites him). Soon enough, Bonny's now running the plantation and married to Dinah. Bonny doesn't realise it, but the witch is just about to put a curse on Bonny that's cause him to think (or turn into, I'm not really sure) a gorilla and run off into the jungle.Here's where the film throws an torrent of missed opportunities at you. We've got Bonny either turning into or thinking he's a gorilla, which includes his hands turning from white to black before getting all hairy (what are they implying?), but no real gorilla action at all! I mean, you've got Lon Chaney Jr in here as a cop after Bonny for the murder of the old guy, but nothing really happens until the last couple of minutes, and even then you don't get to see much. Put it this way, Bonny kills more people when he's not a gorilla, and that's one person.Woody Strode's only in this for about three minutes, then completely disappears.If you really have to see all these gorilla/ape based films, which is a bit of a minefield to be honest to begin with, I'd put this one at the bottom of your list. For a good (hilarious) ape film, watch Bela Lugosi's The Ape Man. That's a good un.

Barbara Payton never smiles in this movie. She seems out of it. Raymond Burr doesn't really cut it as the hunky stud...more like chunky dud. Lon Chaney Jr. recites his lines like Dan Akroyd would on a Saturday Nite Live skit. All the dialog seems like it was from "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra", which was a hilarious spoof of this type of movie. The part where Barbara Payton is facing Raymond Burr in an extended conversation is too funny. She is wearing a white blouse, but her stuffed bra makes her boobs look like highway safety cones...they could easily put your eye out if you're not careful. The movie was generally cheesy and nothing really happened. Raymond Burr seemed to be turning into a gorilla and wanted to heed the Call of the Wild by hanging out in the jungle all the time.

The most interesting thing about Bride Of The Gorilla is that Lon Chaney, Jr. and Raymond Burr seemed to switch roles. As the film bore more than a passing resemblance to one of Chaney's wolf man features at Universal it seemed like both were in each other's roles. Would that Bride Of The Gorilla were as good as one of those Universal Gothic horror films.Chaney is a police inspector and Burr is the foreman on a rubber plantation in one of those northern South American colonies, my guess would be Dutch Guiana as Tom Conway as Dr. Viet says he's there under a government contract. Burr's got eyes for the plantation mistress Barbara Payton who is married to the much older Paul Cavanaugh. After Cavanaugh is killed by a poisonous snake after Burr knocks him down in a fight he gets Payton and weds her.Unfortunately he left a witness in old Gisela Werbisek who is a Maria Ouspenskaya wannabe. She puts a curse on Burr and after that some strange killings of animals start happening in the jungle. Like a werewolf on a prowl. And Burr starts behaving real strange as well.This very talented group of players deserved a whole lot better than this wolf man ripoff.